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Neighborhood Market Find: Cilantro Mini-Cubes

2008_09_26-cilantrocubes.jpgWe have a love-hate relationship with the small grocery store/bodega closest to our apartment. The produce section is bleak, but there are some great Latin food products we love. The other day, we noticed these cilantro cubes – like bouillon cubes for herbs...

 
 

Ok, we know these things run a very distant second to fresh cilantro, but we so rarely use an entire bunch that maybe it would be nice to have a shelf-stable version that could be used in increments?

In the edge of the photo, you can see that there is an onion (cebolla) version of the same product. We didn't buy either. But it's always fun to discover new ingredients you've never seen before.

Anyone out there use these cilantro cubes?

Related: Cilantro: Why Is Its Taste So Polarizing?

(Image: Elizabeth Passarella)

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Ingredients - Herbs, Seasonings, cilantro, bouillon

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Comments (16)

trader joe's has a similar frozen product, with basil and a couple other herbs. not gonna lie, i've used the basil on a few occasions because i can never use fresh herbs quickly enough before they go bad! certainly not as good as fresh picked, but it does the trick.

posted by sarahlucy on September 26th 2008 at 10:07am
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Knorr also makes a similar product (cubes) of chipolte peppers in sauce; perfect for when you don't want to open a whole can when only 1 is needed.

posted by rosebud on September 26th 2008 at 11:03am
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....The fact that it says it's "naturally and artificially flavored" gives me pause.

Honestly, it'd be much better to get a batch of the actual herb, and whatever you don't use, run it through a food processor and freeze it into an ice cube tray. That way you'd know you had the actual herb on hand rather than god-knows-what-all in a cube.

posted by empresscallipygos on September 26th 2008 at 12:01pm
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There are actually a couple of options when freezing. Empresscallipygos mentioned one that is ok if you don't mind watery herbs. But a better option would be chopping up your herbs and freezing them in small tupperware containers specifically manufactured for freezing.

I do this with parsley, basil, and dill. If the herbs are packed tightly in the container, then only the top portion of your herbs gets any type of freezer burn or moisture accumulation. Whenever you're ready to use the herbs, just use a teaspoon to take out the desired amount and return the rest to the freezer.

posted by Krystyna on September 26th 2008 at 12:48pm
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I'm guilty of using the Trader Joe's frozen versions. I'm one of those people who is overly sensitive to cilantro, so a little really goes a long way for me. The loss of color is worth not having to waste almost an entire bunch of cilantro every time I want just a bit of cilantro flavor.

posted by chowbella on September 26th 2008 at 1:38pm
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I swear by TJ's frozen basil cubes. The cubes taste a lot better than the squeeze tubes you can find at Vons/Safeway/Ralphs, and come in ideal proportions for our two-person household. They definitely aren't the same as fresh basil, but until I have a garden, the cubes are great.

posted by sdblondie on September 26th 2008 at 4:33pm
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i was going to pick up the knorr one but it had monosodium glutamate so i put it back on the shelf.

posted by Storm on September 26th 2008 at 9:06pm
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It's really not that hard to make these yourself. We do it nearly every time we buy herbs, and a lot in the summer when we can grow them on our patio. We just put it in the food processor and add a little olive oil to smooth it out, then into cube trays. Once the herbs are frozen, we take them out of the tray and store them in freezer bags.

posted by wendy-rae on September 26th 2008 at 10:18pm
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I sort of like the idea of this but I can't think of a single dish I'd want to use something like this in. I cook with fresh herbs a lot but I never mince them so microscopically small. I think it would be really odd to eat something that has cilantro flavor with no visible pieces of cilantro in it.
I have had really good luck with these produce bags for keeping fresh herbs fresh for a long time:
http://www.reusablebags.com/store/evertfresh-green-bags-pack-medium-p-27.html
With those, I've kept thyme looking nice and fresh for up to 3 weeks, rosemary, parsley and cilantro for up to 2, but basil still gets brown and slimy faster than anything else (1 week tops).

posted by Tiny Banquet on September 27th 2008 at 4:44am
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I'm with Wendy-rae, I do the same with my basil; I use home made chili-oil to store my thai basil, because I usually use it in a "spicey" kind of way.

posted by Rndrc on September 27th 2008 at 7:29am
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Nooo-oo-oooo!!! Argh! Cilantro in cubes! It has to be a nightmare.....

:) Oh well, just a reference to the love-or-hate nature of cilantro discussion a little while ago. More seriously, I'd never buy anything by Knorr, I can't understand why they can't make soups _without_ taste enhancers; how bad could this taste? A law passing a compulsory "May cause cancer" sign wouldn't be completely out of place for brands like this one.

posted by tulpoeid on September 28th 2008 at 5:41am
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i use the trader joe's basil cubes, but i'm close to giving up on them. they really don't taste like anything unless you use a lot of them.

posted by natolee on September 28th 2008 at 6:11am
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good to know! thanks ;-D

posted by Haunted_Studio on September 29th 2008 at 5:21am
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my mum bought some of these once a few years ago... i can't really remember what I thought of them but I don't think it was negative but my entire family always cooks our mexican dishes with knorr's chicken and tomato cubes.

posted by witchbaby on October 1st 2008 at 11:13am
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At 810mg sodium per cube it may be a bit much for some people. If you have the freezer room try freezing fresh cilantro in chicken stock.

posted by Linda in Texas on April 26th 2009 at 4:55pm
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I have an 11 year old who has Celiac Disease and really does not like all the new, expensive, flat tasting gluten free foods. One switch he made was to eat more rice instead of bread. He loves it when I make the rice with the Knorr Cilantro mini cubes. You know kids, the real stuff is just to "real". I know fresh is better but I have to say that when you take all wheat, barley, rye and oats out of a child's diet (which means we have really gone back to basics because everything has wheat or barley in it - modified food starch and malt are the two that show up everywhere) then it is nice that something as simple as a cilantro cube can make him happy. It's pretty good.

posted by mag3 on July 8th 2009 at 3:45pm
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